Monday, April 19, 2010

sleepy ducks and fireman

Good morning friends and family,

We're always open to new methods of teaching and learning here at the Webb house. Just for fun we borrowed the Baby Signing Time video series. It is definitely NOT worth $100, but the videos hold their attention. It is probably better for the twins than watching Toy Story 2 for 15th time, but Kendra questions the value of learning sign language because of their advanced vocabulary in speaking. I think it's good to learn sign language as a 3rd language behind Spanish as their 2nd, but maybe my hopes for them are too high? The lady who sings on the videos is blatantly cheery, but has a pleasant enough voice so as not to annoy the parents. Although I will admit the repetition is so... repetitive... I end up humming the lame tunes as I walk down the hall at work.

Anyhow, I have a lot to cover so let's get right to the adventures! When I have more than an hour block of time with the twins my first reaction is to take them to a park. There are several of them within 10 minutes of our house and the weather is still perfect and sunny for another 2-3 weeks. It's the last hoorah before summer hibernation so we're wearing a path between our house and the parks. I've learned my lesson enough times to know how to pack for our outings. snacks, drinks, sneakers, and Layla's purse. She dramatically asks to take her purse with her every time we leave the house. Even when we are going to the mailbox! We went to the park and took a break from the slides for snack time.

Then we fed the bread to the ducks. I found out the hard way it is best to do the snacks THEN the duck feeding otherwise the twins eat the stale duck bread. That little tip is free. You're welcome. Once the ducks were fed they decided to take a nap next to our picnic table. I asked Layla and Easton to sing them a song. Layla quickly jumped into singing Oma and Opa’s goodnight song:

Go to sleepclose your eyeslittle baby ducks

then her goldfish cracker fell to the ground and she lost focus. It happens... She has such a sweet voice though. I'm excited because she finally has enough confidence to sing harmony as I sing melody. Nursery rhyme duets with Layla is a little piece of heaven on Earth for me.

For some unknown reason Easton and Layla pretend they are babies. Sometimes they will just crawl around laughing, but occasionally they will want to be cuddled like babies. They bring me a blanket and I wrap them up tight. We rock back and forth as they pretend to cry like a baby. Layla asks for a bottle so I hold the sippy cup like I’m feeding. I don’t get why that is funny for them, but I play along to indulge in their imagination.

Easton still sucks his thumb like this so he knows it is what babies do... maybe he'll figure out he isn't a baby anymore and will stop sucking his thumb. I can wish, can't I?

I dug back into the archive to find a similar picture from when the twins were a few weeks old. It is hard to imagine Easton was such a tiny bundle of joy just 2 years ago.

OK, enough reminiscing. On to the other adventures. Play time in our front yard turned into a water hose free for all. Life is simple for a 2 year old. Just give him a water hose and watch as he expresses pure joy.

If he actually does become a fireman, i'll keep this next picture handy because Easton looks like a natural when it comes to spraying water from the hose.

This next picture shows what happens when Layla asked to have a bite of my snow cone and I nonchalantly said, "yes"! She came across the table and buried her face in it like a shark attack.

And this is what happens when Easton is given a cracker with cream cheese. It produces the cutest dimples in the world.

At some point he'll grow out of the overall stage, but for now it is cute and endearing.

I'll save the Mommy and me pictures for the next post because it's late. Besides, I need some time to hear the stories from Kendra to go along with the great pictures Shannon took.